Speaking to the European Parliament yesterday, Belgian MEP Guy Verhofstadt claimed that Britain still needs “consent” of the EU in order to complete the first stage of Brexit to be completed on time by January 31, 2020. Verhofstadt said that his MEP colleagues may deny Boris Johnson his withdrawal agreement if the British PM does not guarantee that all EU citizens living in the UK receive full citizenship rights, and the same for UK citizens living in mainland Europe.

The radical Belgian federalist also remarked that the decision by British voters to leave the EU was “not very intelligent choice.”

Verhofstadt proceeded to chastise Brexiteers in the EU Parliament in a scathing rant:

“There is a consent to be given by this (European) Parliament and I know that everybody says that this consent will be automatically because it’s like that …. We have foreseen that the consent procedure will end in plenary on the 29th of January but in the meanwhile, there is a problem to be solved. I have received since the election in Britain hundreds and hundreds of letters and emails of British citizens living in Europe, panicking about their status. I have received hundreds of mails of EU citizens living in Britain, panicking about their status. And I think we need to solve that first before we give our consent on this Brexit treaty. Never citizens, British or European, can be the victim of this, in my opinion, not very intelligent choice, of Brexit. And I want to do an appeal to Prime Minister Boris Johnson to be generous in his victory and to give all the European citizens and the British citizens alike living on the continent the full rights as they have today. Automatically, to all of them, no ifs no buts, as he always says.”

OH Guy Verhofstadt is pissed, snorting with rage, fear is the tremor in his voice, and yet he still mocks us for voting leave, calls us 'unintelligent', finding another angle the #EU will use to try prevent us leaving their bankers club. EU citizenry.#Brexit